The Greanville Journal

PRESIDENT CHAVEZ EXPLAINING THE PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE REASONS FOR THE REFUSAL TO RENEW RCTV’S LICENSE.

BY ROB SEWELL |
DATELINE: Monday, 11 June 2007

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State last week launched another frontal attack against the Venezuelan Revolution at the start of the general assembly of the Organization of American States in Panama City.

Hypocritically, Ms Rice hit out at the closure of Radio Caracas Television, whose demise drew opposition protests, calling it Hugo Chávez’s “sharpest and most acute” move against democracy.

Together with the rest of the howling pack, she pounced upon the Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, a television channel that was involved up to its neck in the Washington-backed coup against President Chavez in April 2002.

“Freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government”, she declared. “Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”

After this lecture in “democracy”, the Secretary of State then called upon the OAS to send Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to Venezuela to investigate the station’s closure.

This attack was followed up by the Big Boss himself, President George W. Bush. While in Prague, Bush declared: “In Venezuela, elected leaders have resorted to shallow populism to dismantle democratic institutions and tighten their grip on power.”

Furthermore, Rice also warned Russia against selling arms to Venezuela, but Moscow immediately rebuffed her criticism, saying a $120 million deal it has signed with Caracas violates no laws or treaties.

This concerted hue and cry by the arch representatives of imperialism against Venezuela was joined by America’s Senate, which passed a motion in support of RCTV. This motion drew the support from the two Democratic presidential front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, keen to prove their “democratic” credentials. [Read more →]

Tags: The Contemptible Media, Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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BY PAUL A. DONOVAN

Dear Libertarians,

I sincerely appreciate the passion and sincerity you exhibit in your endeavors, and that is why I’d like to bring up a few points to your attention. These comments originate in my recent exposure to a very large number of posts commenting primarily on an article on the Thomas Paine’s Corner blog of Cyrano’s Journal, Annals of Stupidity: The Demise of Alexander Cockburn, by Gerald Rellick. (See: https://bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=54 )

I discern in this thread what I have observed elsewhere, a tremendous infatuation by Libertarians with Rep. Ron Paul. That certainly strikes me as logical: Paul is one of your own. The point of divergence, however, is equally simple. The reasons and personal qualities you adduce for elevating Mr. Paul to the status of national saviour are matched, and in many dimensions clearly exceeded, by another political figure, Dennis Kucinich. What is the reason then for this partiality? I don’t want to get ahead of myself here but just let me say the following: the only conceivable reason I can find for your complete disregard of Rep. Kucinich as a serious candidate and his clear and courageous stands is that he is not a Libertarian in political philosophy, that is, he does not worship individualism at the expense of the commonwealth. [Read more →]

Tags: CJO'S OpEds, The Left & Pseudo Left, Obstinate History by Greanville
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BY CAMILLO “MAC” BICA

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, during the Iraq war, 56 percent of soldiers and Marines (henceforth I will use the term “soldiers” to include members of all branches, both male and female) have killed another human being, 20 percent admit being responsible for noncombatant deaths, and 94 percent had seen bodies and human remains.[i] According to Colonel Charles Engel, MD, MPH, director of the deployment health clinical center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, between 15 and 29 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Because soldiers still on active duty are being deployed longer and more often to Iraq, experts say that the PTSD rate among Iraq veterans could well eclipse the 30% lifetime rate found in a 1990 national study of Vietnam veterans. While these numbers are staggering and should give any rational human being pause, the readjustment difficulties suffered by active duty military and veterans because of their experiences in Iraq are not exhausted by references to trauma and PTSD. Tragically, as soldiers experience the horror and cruelty of war, especially urban counterinsurgency war, the moral gravity of their actions – displacing, torturing, injuring, and killing other human being (henceforth “combat behavior”) – becomes apparent, soldiers suffer not only the effects of trauma, but what I will term “moral injuries,” i.e., debilitating remorse, guilt, shame, disorientation, and alienation from the remainder of the moral community. [Read more →]

Tags: Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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BY ROBERT McCHESNEY

PAUL SWEEZY, FOUNDER OF MONTHLY REVIEW

I wrote this as a paper for a seminar in history during my first year of grad school at the University of Washington in 1984. It was a labor of love for me because it gave me an opportunity to read every single issue of Monthly Review, all of which were carefully kept in bound volumes in the magnificent UW library. I was so influenced by MR coming of age in the early and middle 1970s that I wanted to understand what sort of institution and culture could produce so much wisdom and brilliance . . . and I wanted to read all the issues from the 50s and 60s I had never seen before. I never imagined anyone would ever read it aside from my professor, Robert Burke.

For the heck of it, I sent a copy to my best friend, John Bellamy “Duke” Foster, who by then was already a periodic contributor to MR. Duke liked it and shared it with MR coeditor Paul Sweezy, who I gather also liked it. Shortly thereafter, Duke mentioned to Paul that he had been approached by Verso to write a combination authorized biography of Paul and history of Monthly Review. Duke told him it would do a good deal to expand the MR legacy. Paul’s reply: “Don’t waste your time. Leave that to someone else. You have more important work to do.” Harry Magdoff, the other MR coeditor, concurred. It is fair to say that neither Paul nor Harry were publicity hounds, and that may account for the relative paucity of material on them and on MR. [Read more →]

Tags: The Left & Pseudo Left, Book Reviews, Obstinate History by Greanville
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BY CAMILLO “MAC” BICA

Judging by the intensity of the debate that plagued much of the 2004 presidential election, the divisiveness of the Vietnam war has not been resolved. If anything it has festered, inflamed by similar concerns and questions regarding the legality, morality, purpose, and necessity of the war in Iraq. The continued polemic about a war some thirty years gone and the debate regarding the withdrawal or escalation of American troops in Iraq seem to be symptoms of the public’s bewilderment and confusion regarding the realities of war and a consequence of the myth perpetuated by political leaders pursuant to their goals of hegemony, neocolonialism, and empire.

Understanding the truth about war is not just a matter of ensuring historical accuracy. It is crucial to members of the military, veterans, and the families of those injured or killed struggling to heal from their experiences of combat and of loss. Essential to addressing these emergent psychological and emotional needs is an ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, truth from mythology. [Read more →]

Tags: Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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the Love that Binds Us

BY CAMILLO MAC BICA
Echoes of a distant but impossible to forget war…

We talk often of military service in war as a civic and patriotic duty. But as the realities of combat and of the battlefield become apparent, patriotic sentiments, political ideologies, and mythologies fade quickly beneath the screams of the unbearable pain of the mutilated and the dying. Ultimately, warriors fight, kill, and accept injury and death, neither for god nor for country, but from a personal code of honor, loyalty, commitment, and accountability to one’s comrades.

“He didn’t have to go to Iraq. He chose to go. He wanted to be with his brothers.” These are the words of the clearly distraught and heartbroken mother of Thomas, a marine recently killed in Iraq, describing her son’s fatal decision to extend his enlistment in order to deploy with his unit. Of course, his family tried to convince him otherwise, but Thomas was adamant that “abandoning” his comrades as they headed into harm’s way was not an option. [Read more →]

Tags: Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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Film poster for Hal Ashby’s COMING HOME (1978) one of the finest films to come out of the Vietnam War trauma, and, in terms of plotline, a collage of Bob Muller’s and Ron Kovic’s own personal experiences.

BY BOB MULLER, Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Presented at a meeting of the Student Assembly of Columbia University Student Assembly, July 23, 1971.

Vietnam is something you have to experience firsthand to believe. I know I didn’t believe what anybody told me about Vietnam before I went; it was something I had to go through myself.

Let me go back and tell you who I am and what I’m about. I’m a retired first lieutenant in the Marines — retired, because today, when you’re separated from service for a disability, you’re put on a retired basis; you’re not simply discharged as you were in World War II. [Mr. Muller spoke from a wheelchair, the result of a crippling injury sustained in Vietnam.]

In 1967, I was in my senior year in college at Hofstra University. And one day that spring, I went into the Student Union Building, and there was a Marine officer standing there. He looked very sharp: he had his dress blues on, and he had the old crimson stripe down the side of his trousers. I said, “That looks good! I’m going to be a marine.”

Right there, in that sentence, is really the tragedy of my life, as I view it. The tragedy of my life was not being shot in Vietnam; the tragedy in my life is one that has been shared by all too many Americans, and is still being shared today. For me, knowledge of the fact that my government had seen fit to involve us militarily in Vietnam was sufficient for me. I never asked the reason why. I just took it on blind faith that my government knew a hell of a lot more than I ever could, and that they must be right. My opinion has changed since then…. [Read more →]

Tags: Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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ANNALS OF THE SCUMBAG PRESS
By Gregory Wilpert | Thursday, Oct 02, 2003

This is a REPOST of an archived article whose relevance to the current situation in Venezuela remains fresh and strong. Republished at reader request.

An article recently appeared in one of the largest U.S. news magazines, an article which will remind well-informed readers of a typical disinformation campaign. The article in question, “Terror Close to Home,” by Linda Robinson, appeared in U.S. News and World Report (10/6/03) [i] and claims to have evidence that Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, is “flirting with terrorism.” The appearance of a baseless article like this, combined with recent statements by Gen. James Hill, head of the Southern Command, that Venezuela’s Margarita Island is a haven for Islamic terrorist groups, suggests that the Bush administration is setting the stage for declaring Venezuela a “rogue” state.

However, the article is so full of false conclusions, unnamed “U.S. government sources,” distortions, and outright falsehoods, that one has to wonder what the author’s real agenda is. Let’s examine the article’s problems one by one.

Falsehoods & Distortions

Linda Robinson claims that “Venezuela is providing support … that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups.” She goes on to say, “U.S. News has learned that Chavez’s government has issued thousands of cedulas, the equivalent of Social Security cards, to people from places such as Cuba, Colombia, and Middle Eastern nations that play host to foreign terrorist organizations.” First of all, it is probably true that Venezuela issued identification cards (“cedulas”) to citizens of these countries, something that the U.S. does too, whenever it grants residency to a non-U.S. citizen, in the form of a “green card.” The issuance of such identification papers, if anything, helps track residents’ illegal activity, rather than obscures it, as the article suggests. The accusation from an unnamed “American official” that “more than a thousand” Colombians had received “cedulas” is meaningless in a country that has several hundred thousand Colombians living there as legal residents. [Read more →]

Tags: The Contemptible Media, Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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Confusion about the nature of the Iraq War runs deep. This mother of a dead Marine chose to honor her son and his fellow soldiers by decorating a Hummer (!), and travelling across the nation on this mobile shrine honoring the war’s “noble goals.” Sadly, not all mothers figure it out like Cindy did.

CYRANO’S JOURNAL OpEds

BY CAMILLO “MAC” BICA

Originally at OpEdNews, a CJO fraternal site

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_camillo__070531_the_frustrations_of_.htm

Dateline: June 1, 2007

In Good Riddance Attention Whore, Cindy Sheehan’s resignation as the “face” of the anti-war movement, she makes clear the frustrations of speaking truth to power in a country that is more concerned with who will be the next American Idol than with the deaths of thousands of its own children and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. We who advocate peace understand and share Cindy’s frustration and dismay with the arrogance, ineptitude, and criminality of the current Administration, the moral and political cowardice of members of Congress, and the lack of outrage, apathy, and indifference of the American people. In solidarity with Cindy and the millions of others who make great personal sacrifices for peace and justice, endure the outrageous comments and intimidation of the ignorant, and easily lead, I offer the following dirge on the frustrations of activism.

They wage preemptive war based on lies and deception against a sovereign nation.We who advocate peace say such wars are illegal and immoral. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They chose not to serve or had “other priorities” when their Country called, and now cavalierly send our children to kill and to die in their war for oil and empire.We who advocate peace say that if the cause is so important and the threat so grave, our chickenhawk leaders and their privileged children should be the first to go. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They send our military into harm’s way unnecessarily, in inadequate numbers, with inferior body and vehicle armor, and expose them to harmful levels of depleted uranium. We who advocate peace say our troops are not cannon fodder and that such leadership is incompetent and indifferent to the needs of our military. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They deny a pay raise for our troops, cut the budget of the Veterans Administration, offer substandard physical and psychological treatment for our returning wounded and veterans. We who advocate peace say providing for the needs of our wounded and our veterans is a moral and legal obligation and should be our first priority. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They refuse to meet and to comfort the families of our fallen heroes, denigrate the memory, sacrifice, and dignity of our soldiers killed in battle by fabricating fantasies of their death and suffering to bolster patriotic support for their unpopular war. We who advocate peace say that exploiting the deaths of our soldiers and the grief and suffering of their families is unconscionable and depraved. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They torture detainees in Abu Graib, Guantanamo and “black sites” – secret prisons around the world — and deny “prisoners” even the most basic right of Habeas Corpus. We who advocate peace say that such acts increase the risk that our troops will be ill-treated and tortured should they be captured, and violate the United States Constitution and International law. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They exploit the fear of the American people post 9/11, violate their rights to privacy, misrepresented and now ignore the health effects suffered by First Responders and workers following the attacks on the World Trade Center.
We who advocate peace say such exploitation of a vulnerable citizenry, blatant disregard for their basic human rights, and indifference to the well-being of our First Responders and workers is “Un-American” and a violation of basic human decency. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They award no-bid contracts to favored corporations for personal benefit and to garner support for their corrupt agenda fleecing America of billions of dollars and, in many cases, placing the lives of our citizens (military and civilian) in danger. We who advocate peace say such war profiteering is an outrage and must be investigated and prosecuted. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They sat idle as the city of New Orleans and thousands of its inhabitants died while giving further unaccounted for billions of dollars to corporate criminals to salvage what remains for wealthy developers. We who advocate peace say such indifference to human pain and suffering is criminal and unconscionable. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They give tax cuts to the wealthy, tax incentives to the profit hungry oil industry that repeatedly enjoy record profits, ignore global warming and the environment, and cut aid to students and to health care. We who advocate peace say that fattening the corporate coffers and benefiting the affluent at the expense of the poor is anathema and a defilement of American values. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They waste billions of tax dollars on their illegal and immoral war, mortgaging our country to foreign interests and investors.We who advocate peace say such “selling of America” is fiscal suicide and threatens the future survival of our beloved nation. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, to “punish” her husband for reporting the Niger uranium-production allegations to be untrue, jeopardizing Plames’ life, the lives of many other operatives she may have worked with in the past, and the CIA’s Counterterrorism operation…We who advocate peace say that knowingly disclosing the name of an undercover agent is treason and illegal under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

On Memorial Day, they stage Air shows, weapons displays and celebrate the technology of war all intended to entice other young men and women to die in war. We who advocate peace say that Memorial Day is not for celebration, or show, or deceptive recruitment, but for grieving and remembering the brave Americans already sacrificed, some unnecessarily, on the field of battle. And they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

We thank Cindy for her courage, dedication, personal sacrifice, and commitment to world peace and social justice during a time of profound grief and suffering. We wish her health, personal peace, and happiness during her sabbatical of restoration. God speed, Cindy Sheehan.

Authors Website: www.svaphilosopher.com

Camillo “Mac” Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His focus is in Ethics, particularly as it applies to war and warriors. As a veteran recovering from his experiences as a United States Marine Corps Officer during the Vietnam War, he founded, and coordinated for five years, the Veterans Self-Help Initiative, a therapeutic community of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is a long-time activist for peace and justice, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founding member of the Long Island Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Articles by Dr. Bica have appeared in The Humanist Magazine, Znet, Truthout.com, Common Dreams, AntiWar.com, Monthly Review Zine, Foreign Policy in Focus, OpEdNews.Com, and numerous philosophical journals.

Tags: CJO'S OpEds, The Left & Pseudo Left, Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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JOHN BOLTON HELPING TO COUNT THE BALLOTS IN FLORIDA DURING THE 2000 FRAUDULETION

BY JOE MOWREY

Everyone is carping about the betrayal of the antiwar movement by the Democrats. It won’t take more than a few paragraphs to state the obvious. We no longer live in anything resembling a democracy, and we haven’t for many decades now. We live in a corporate-fascist theocratic oligarchy, or whichever multi-syllabic label you want to tack onto our current laissez faire capitalistic religious-extremist nightmare. If you need to have this explained to you in more depth, then you are probably one of those dreamers who did volunteer work for some Democratic candidate last year. Get over it. You’ve been duped again. No big surprise.

It is not now, and hasn’t been for at least the last 100 years, a question of which party holds power. Both parties are branches of the same form of governance. Those of you out there who think this is about a good system gone awry, look again. The system is working just the way it was intended to. The power elite who controls and operates corporations profit from labor exploitation, war and environmental devastation. This is not new information. But it seems to be the most difficult news for the peace and social justice movement, or whatever you want to call those who claim to be antiwar human rights activists, to come to terms with.

All that pissing into the electoral wind the “progressives” did in the lead-up to the November ‘06 elections has just rather unpleasantly blown back in their faces. Nancy, Harry and the rest of the gang in Washington have done exactly what they were paid to do. They have implemented the policies of their primary constituency—the multinational corporations. The occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan won’t be ending any time soon. Either accept that, or get ready to take the real actions that need to be taken to end U.S. imperialist warmongering.

There are many millions of us out here who understand this situation and know exactly what to do about it. It’s time for a little R & R—remove and replace our system of government, peacefully and nonviolently. I call it the two-percent solution. If a mere two percent of the American public (six million heroes) were to show up, half in Washington D.C., the other half in New York City (in order to take control of the major corporate broadcast media outlets) determined not to leave until the federal government is dissolved and the truth is begun to be broadcast to people in this country, we could change the world overnight.

Don’t expect any rational organizational structure to be in place to implement this plan. This is the left, after all. We need to show up and let the chips fall where they may. It’s time for a little abject faith in the processes of the universe. How much more insane is that than putting your faith in the “democratic” process? There have been nonviolent revolutions in major countries before. Let’s not consider ourselves so unique that we are immune to historic upheaval. But out of this ramshackle demonstration of collective outrage could come a new paradigm.

We could hold a People’s Congress—continue necessary operations of federal and state infrastructure while beginning the process of writing a new constitution and holding publicly financed and internationally monitored elections. We could revoke the charters of every corporation in the United States (and the Cayman Islands) and require them to undergo a process of reapplication and review. We could establish a Truth Commission to bring us to a collective acceptance of the horrors the United States of America has visited on the globe over the last 230 years or so. We could abandon the corrupt “American Dream” in favor of a universal dream of human dignity, justice and compassion.

Would the ensuing chaos and cathartic social revolution be pretty? Not likely. But look at where we are and where we are headed. Each day that passes brings us closer to environmental, economic and social disaster. The sooner we dismantle this juggernaut of mass destruction we call a government, the sooner we can begin to construct a new social order.

It has to happen eventually. There have been very few if any examples in history of totalitarian systems being dismantled via the ballot box. Despite this fact, many on the left continue to embrace such an absurd notion. We can do this now, while there is still some semblance of functionality to our core infrastructure, or wait until we experience economic and political collapse, martial law and the imposition of a true dictatorship in this country. The former alternative could conceivably be done without arms. The latter will require decades of insurgence and armed resistance which in the end will result in little more than a changing of the guard. Have you read much about global climate change lately? We don’t have decades to spare.

Either we act now or give up completely and hunker down to watch the end of the world on the evening news, replete with theme songs and spectacular graphics. Tough call? Think about it.

Joe Mowrey is a peace and social justice activist living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He can be contacted at . Among his other relentlessly futile endeavors, he is one of a small contingent of diehards who have maintained a presence at a major intersection in town every Friday for the last four and a half years in opposition to the illegal and immoral invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. He also manages the database and produces the graphics for the Iraq/Afghanistan Memorial Installation, a 550-foot-long (and growing) series of 3 by 6 foot vinyl banners displaying the names, faces and obituaries of the U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Installation is a project of The Duck & Cover Coalition.

Tags: The Left & Pseudo Left, Obstinate History, Imperial Policy by Greanville
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